33 

r 

I 1 



THE ESSENTIALS 
OF SOIL FERTILirY 




ALVA AGEE 



PRICE, FIFTY CENTS 



'J 



THE ESSENTIALS OF 
SOIL FERTILITY 



Copyright. 1910. by 

The Stock man-Far rner Publishing Company 

Pittsburgh, Pa. 



The Essentials of 
Soil Fertility 



BY 
ALVA AGEE 



"The Fertility of Our Soil Is 
the Salvation of Our Country" 



1 J 



Published by 

The Stockman-Farmer Publishing Company 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 






FOREWORD 

'X^HIS little book has been printed for practical 
-■- people. It seeks to present the facts about 
soil fertility in such a plain and concise way that 
any reader may know the essential needs of his soil 
and the rational way of supplying those needs. It 
packs together into small space the teachings of 
The National Stockman and Farmer on soil fertility. 

ALVA AGEE 

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 
September 1, 1910 



VouKTH Edition, Makch, 1913 
6 



TRANSFERRED FROM 
COPYRIGHT OFf=ICfc 
8£f 2 I3i3 



The Essentials of Soil Fertility 



CHAPTER I 

A PLAIN FARMER'S CREED 

THEOLOGICAL experts can take the plain 
"Sermon on the Mount" and write so learnedly 
and so much that a plain citizen can't tell right 
from wrong in the simplest matters. Scientists can go 
so deep into problems of soil fertility that their results 
mean nothing at all to the man who has a living to 
make from land. Turning aside from the cart-loads 
of figures that are drawn out of e;x:perimental fields 
and laboratories each year, and from the theories of 
highly refined scientific minds, w^e know that the prac- 
tical means of making land productive are simple and 
easily understood. 

There are only four essential things to consider in 
converting all the thin fields between the Mississippi 
river and the Atlantic seaboard into productive land. 

DRAINAGE 

The first thing is drainage. Much of our land has 
natural drainage, and this problem does not enter. 
Other land is wet — water-soaked. We know what 
that means. Air cannot enter to help make the inert 
plant food available. Friendly bacteria cannot \vork 
for us. Plant roots will not penetrate into the stag- 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 

nant soil. We cannot plant in season nor cultivate 
as we should. The soil is water-sealed when we want 
it to be activ^e. Such land must have drainage. 

Usually we should under-drain, and tile is the best 
material. But each man may solve his problem in his 
own way. If surface ditches will secure the end, well 
and good. If a deep -running plow will break up a 
hard-pan that prevents escape of water, that is fine. 
If stone drains are preferred, they can be used. If a 
profitable crop can be found which thrives in a rather 
"wet soil, that is another solution to the problem. 
JNIost plants want a well-drained soil. If they are to 
he grown, and the land has an excess of moisture, 
-drainage of some sort is essential. It is one of the 
four considerations when there is unproductive land 
to be put into profitable condition. 

DESTRUCTION OF ACIDS 

The second plain requirement is that the soil be 
sweet. Very much land is acid. The area grows 
greater year by year. The acid condition is unfavor- 
able to many kinds of plants, and notably so in the 
case of the clovers. Low wet land or high sandy land 
may be sour. Infertile land usually is sour in the 
eastern half of this country. Don't waste time argu- 
ing the point with men whose land does not need lime. 
Let tliem believe as they may : no harm can result, 
because their soil is sweet. But lime your own land 
if it is acid, and do it <juickly. This is the second 
essential, and there is no way of getting around an 
essential. 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 

ORGANIC MATTER 

The third factor is vegetable matter in the soil. 
Nature recognizes this by constant effort to produce 
vegetation for itself. It is the thing nature does for 
its old, thin, abandoned lands. Rotting vegetation 
helps to release inert mineral plant food in a soil, ^It 
helps physical condition, and that is important, ir en- 
ables land to hold moisture, and that is a vital matter. 
It is plant food for another crop. Stable manure, the 
clovers, grass, weeds — all these supply organic matte*, 
and this is the third essential. Anything that grows 
and rots helps, but some things are much better than 
others. Most thin fields are woefully deficient in or- 
ganic matter. 

AVAILABLE PLANT FOOD 

We may have drainage, sweetness of soil, and or- 
ganic matter, and yet lack some available plant food ; 
and a plant must be fed just as surely as an animal 
must be fed. Commercial fertilizers supply this need. 
Some soils have no needs of any kind. Thin soils al- 
ways need some available plant food — some nitrogen, 
phosphoric acid or potash, and usually all three until 
improvement is well under way. When the clovers 
are well established, or manure is freely used, we may 
be able to drop the use of commercial nitrogen. Ex- 
perience will tell its own story about this. 

THE RIGHT ORDER 

The first matter is drainage. The next one is cer- 
tainty that no acids are crippling our efforts and the 
efforts of the soil to help itself The next thing is to 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY( 

supply stable manure or decaying plant roots and 
stubble — heavy sods or other growth of vegetation. 
Then we can have good physical condition and ability 
to hold moisture during drought. The rotting vegeta- 
tion makes available a part of the old, inert stores of 
material in what was a worthless soil. Then we only 
supplement the supply of fertility, as needed, by the 
use of commercial fertilizers. 

THE DIFFERENCE 

Of course good tillage is needed— that goes with- 
out saying. So is good seed, and many other things. 
But the difference between the hundreds of thou- 
sands of acres of poor land and the good land is one 
embracing only the four essentials mentioned, and 
often only three or two of them. The land can be 
taken out of the nearly worthless class and put into 
the productive class by intelligent supply of the one, 
two, three or four things that chance to be nfeeded. 
The problem is not an intricate one. Thousands of 
men have solved it for themselves, and they did it in 
this way, because it is the one way. When a soil has 
a need, it can not be fooled into believing all is well 
till the need has been supplied. 

THE BIG PROBLEM 

Some scientists may say, with a fine conservatism, 
that we do not know that there is any soil acidity, 
any actual soil exhaustion, any direct need of the 
plant food in a fertilizer. What of it! The owner of 
land has a living to make, and all he has to do is to 
brush aside the cobwebs of the ultra-scientific soul 

10 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL- FER TILITY 

and make the soil productive. The factors are four 
in number, and he may have to supply all, or only 
one, two, or three. TJie land must have drainage, 
freedom from acids, organic matter and plenty ^of 
available plant food. Then it will produce, despite all 
theories. 

The big problem is to do what is needed in the 
most profitable way. What will pay? That is the 
question. If land must be cropped, it will pay to 
provide the four essentials, if all four are lacking. Is 
it drainage ? How much and in what way shall we 
drain? Is it soil acidity? AVhen and how heavily 
shall we lime? Is it organic matter? How can we 
g:et it to best advantage ? That involves crop rota- 
tions, the making of manure, the use of sods and 
green manures, etc., etc. Is it available plant food 
that we must have? What proportion and what 
amounts of the elements of plant food will pay best ? 
The problem is one of best means, but we know what 
we are after: drainage, sweet soil conditions, organic 
matter and plant food. 



It 



CHAPTER II 

THE FIRST ESSENTIAL 
DRAINAGE OF WET LAND 

Wet land cannot earn tlic money needed for 
investment in its own improvement. A soil having 
natural drainage may be thin, but under good man- 
agement it can grow better, helping the owner to the 
means for its betterment. Wet land is helpless. The 
money to put it into paying condition must come 
from the outside. There is the difficulty— the big 
obstacle. I don't like to urge under drainage as 
insistently as 1 would urge the growing of vegetable 
matter for thin soils ; because the drainage, on any 
large scale, means a new in\ estment, often equal to 
half the selling price of the land. It means debt to 
the man whose income has been solely from a wet 
farm. Thorough under-drainage is a big proposition. 

1 know^ the cost of under-drainage, because I have 
put miles of it in land so heavy and w^et that laterals 
could not be placed ftirther apart than 32 to 40 feet. 
Equally I know the profit on such investment, the 
<lrainage changing land that could not earn any net 
profit into land that could earn the entire cost of 
drainage m a single season. In two or three fields it 
did more than this. An investment of tw^enty to 
thirty dollars an acre for improvement cannot be 
made on some land with safety, and it seems prohibi- 
tive to most owners of wet farms, but there is a 

12 




Oats and Peas— A Good Forage That Enriches the Soil 
13 




Forty Bushels of Wheat Per Acre— The Result of Drainage and Fertility 




It Pays to Provide the Proper Fertilizer for Hay 
14 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 



rational way of attacking this problem of drainage 
that most men can adopt with safety and profit. 

BEGINNING TO DRAIN 

Any farmer could and would invest a small sum 
in drainage if he knew the cost would be repaid 
quickly. If he has a fairly productive field contain- 
ing a few wet acres that delay plowing and planting 
of the whole field each year, and that cut down the 
yield of the whole field, there is the place to make 
the first investment. Make that wet part of the field 
the driest part and the most productive part by 
means of drainage, and see how quickly the money 
returns. The experiment gives practical experience 
in under-drainage, cash returns and plenty of faith to 
push the work of continued under-drainage. Be con- 
tent to try the matter out on a few acres and know 
for yourself what drainage can do in increasing yields 
per acre. Then you will begin to drain more land 
because you know you can not afford to let it remain 
"wet. 

THE FIRST THING TO DO 

Many farms remain wet and unproductive because 
their owners do not know anything about drain tile 
and the right way to do the work. The whole matter 
looks difficult. But it is not. Plain common sense 
dictates everything that is necessary to do in under- 
draining land. The first thing is to learn how good 
drain tile can be delivered to the farm for the least 
money. Write to manufacturers and dealers. Ac- 
quaint yourself with prices at tlie factories for the 

15 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 

various sizes. Learn about freight rates in car lots. A 
few letters will let you know the best price on each 
size that may be used, and a measuring tape will let 
you know how much tile you propose using in this 
first undertaking. Lack of this kind of knQwledge 
stands in the way of many a beginning that w^ould end 
in much net profit. 

THE OUTLET 

Water wants to run down hill. The outlet is the 
first point to locate. If the land is flat, use a sur- 
veyor's level. Don't trust the eye nor any present im- 
pression that the water can be carried in one direction 
as easily as in another. A level usually surprises one 
about the fall. Try for an outlet that will never give 
any trouble. Under-drainage should remain about as 
permanent and enduring as the land itself, and that 
means an outlet which attends to its work. But it 
is better to drain into a ditch that requires watching 
than not to under-drain at all. 

The outlet must be lower than any point in the 
drain. Water from above will force itself through a 
depression in a drain for a time, but soon the depres- 
sion fills with silt, and the drain is clogged. Every 
foot of pipe must have ability to send the water oa 
toward the outlet. 

THE GRADE 

If the land is flat, have the grade established by an 
engineer's level. Don't trust a mason's level and your 
eye. They may be all right when there is a lot of fall 
- — a foot or more to each one hundred feet— but worth- 

16 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 

less wlien the fall is slight. Drive a stake flush with 
surface of ground at each one hundred foot station in 
the lines of the proposed main. drain and all the lat- 
erals. Get the levels of these stations. Then you can 
know the depth of cut at each station to give the grade 
wanted, A fall of three inches to each one hundred 
feet is excellent. I like it all the better when the fall 
is more, but have laid much tile where the fall is less. 
One big main went in with a fall of less than an inch 
to the hundred feet. The only requirement for endur- 
ing work is that the tile between stations goes in on 
a practically perfect grade, and that is not difficult if 
a system of cross strings is used to test each foot of 
the drain between stations. 

DEPTH OF UNDER-DRAINAGE 

We under-drain to lower the level of the dead water 
;'n the ground. Plant roots cannot develop where the 
pores of the soil are filled with stagnant water. The 
soil is the feeding-ground of plants, and air is an 
absolute requirement. The water which best serves 
plants is held in films around the tiny particles of soil, 
and drainage must be provided for naturaUy wet land 
to remove any surplus. The depth at which under-drains 
Avork effectively determines the amount of soil in 
which plants may feed to best advantage. If the ground 
is of such character that it will become reasonably po- 
rous after under-drainage, it is desirable that the drains 
be at least three feet under the surface. Experience 
lias shown that much heavy land wdll not permit the 
water from trenches to descend sufficiently rapidly to 
drains three feet deep, and the owner of such land is 

17 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 

cautioned on this point. A depth of 30 inches is 
safer for all land of close texture, and there are rela- 
tively small areas of very plastic soils in which drain 
tile should not be buried more than 24 to 28 inches. 

LAYING THE TILE 

Have the main a few inches lower than all laterals, 
so that the water from the laterals will be drawn into 
the main. You can buy tile with holes cut for con- 
nection with laterals. Take pains to kave the connec- 
tion close. Don't leave any places for water to enter 
freely from the soil above the connection. This 
applies equally to every joint in the drain. When 
laying tile, turn the piece around until it fits snugly 
at the top. We want all the water to settle in the 
soil and rise into the tile. That reduces the amount 
of silt entering the drain. Don't fear the joint will be 
too close. Pressure will send the water througli the 
closest joint that can be made. Fill the trench with 
earth. The water will find the tile without aid of 
straw, sods or stone placed over the tile. In most 
soils- they may do harm and not good. The only 
exception to this rule is a very plastic clay that will 
remain nearly impervious to water. In such a case, it 
is best to keep the soil above the drain open by 
means of foreign material. 

SIZE OF TILE 

As size of tile increases, cost runs up fast. We do 
not want to waste money, and, on the other hand, a 
main that will not carry off the water in time to save 
a crop is worthless. A main should be larfi^e enough 

18 



THE ESSE NTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 

to carry all the water that the owner may ever want 
to bring to it by extension of his system of drainage. 
The area to be drained, the thoroughness of tlie drain- 
age, and the amount of surface water coming from 
higher land that is undrained, determine the size of 
the main. The fall also is a factor. Ordinarily, I 
should expect a six-inch main to carry all the water 
from a twelve-acre field, or a five-inch main to carry 
the water from an eight-acre field, if no surface water 
from other land ran down upon it. I should not use 
tile less than five inches for a main if there were 
many laterals to be joined to it. 

The laterals should be small. They cost much less 
pnd do the work perfectly when put into position in 
a workmanlike manner. Many factories now make 
nothing less than three inches in diameter. This 
indicates that people do not like to trust a smaller 
size. Formerly they used two-inch, and carelessness 
in laying, causing depressions that finally filled with 
silt, brought this size into disrepute. I have seldom 
used anything larger than two-and-a-half inch tile for 
laterals. Certainly the three-inch is abundantly large. 



CHAPTER III 

THE SECOND ESSENTIAL 
THE RIGHT USE OF LIME 

Lime may be applied to the soil to improve its 
physical condition, and there are instances in whicli 
it is needed as actual plant food; but I am chiefly 
interested in lime as a means of keeping a soil 
friendly to plant life through correction of acidity. 
The tendency of all soils is to lose some of their stock 
of available lime, and, when a lime deficiency comes 
about, acids accumulate in the soil that make condi- 
tions unfriendly to bacterial life and to our fcultivated 
plants. A large portion of the land outside of lime- 
stone belts has parted with its available lime to a 
point where a lime deficiency now exists, and this 
condition is limiting the production of clover and 
other crops. More than this, within our limestone 
belts there is a rapidly increasing area of soil which 
has a lime deficiency. I live in a limestone valley at 
State College, Pennsylvania, and our scientists find 
that much of the land on the College farm does not 
now contain enough lime in available form to keep 
the soil sweet. The land is becoming acid, and 
requires applications of lime to correct acidity just as 
truly as does very much of the land outside of the 
limestone areas. When we first began to turn new 
land with a breaking-plow, doubtless a diminution of 
the supplies of available lime occuiTcd, and, as the so'A 

20 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 

was kept loose by means of tillage and cuops were 
taken from the land, the store of lime was gradually 
reduced by leaching and by removal and by chemical 
change as acids formed, and it appears now that it is 
only a matter of time when practically all soil will 
reach a point where a lack of available lime will 
become apparent. Some of you have land that pro- 
duced good clover twenty years ago and is now 
beginning to refuse to grow clover. Others of you 
have land that is producing good clover today, but 
will probably reach the point of lime deficiency and 
impaired power to grow clover a generation hence. 
The point which I would emphasize is l^hat the lime 
in our soil which is so essential to healthful plant 
conditions tends to grow less in amount as the years 
go by. Within our own life-time, we have seen a 
large proportion of our tillable lands reach the point 
where there is not enough lime to take care of harm- 
ful soil acids, and as the years come the area of such 
land will grow greater. This is not a pleasing situa- 
tion to contemplate, but it is a condition that must 
be met. There is only one cure for soil acidity, and 
that is to apply something to correct it and to give 
to the plants friendly soil conditions. 

SWEETEN THE SOIL 

The vital question before tens of thousands of 
practical farmers today is, what shall be done to 
restore their soils to a condition friendly to clovers. 
Many say that lime costs too much ,and that its 
application is unpleasant, and they are not fullv con- 
vinced that it would be profitable. I want to urge 

21 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY^ 

that if the soil is becoming acid, and if the organic 
matter is deficient because heavy sods cannot be 
grown and plowed down, there is no w ay to bring 
the land up to high-cropping power except to apply 
the one natural element for the correction of these 
bad soil conditions, and that is lime. Men who 
abused the use of lime years ago applied one hundred 
to two hundred bushels per acre. It is not such a 
liming that we are urging today. I am not even urg- 
ing lime to benefit the physical condition of your 
land, although oftentimes applications for this pur- 
pose would pay well ; but I am urging that soils be 
kept sweet, and that means the presence of sufficient 
available lime to take care of all the harmful acids 
that tend continually to accumulate in land that is 
deficient in lime. 

HOW MUCH LIME? 

The only way to tell how much lime should be ap- 
plied is try out the matter through experiment. If 
your land today refuses to grow clover, the chances 
are that you will see a wonderful difference in the 
growth if only a thousand pounds of lime per acre be 
applied. I know land that has greatly increased its 
clover production by the application of only five hun- 
dred pounds per acre. In a general way, if clovers are 
refusing to grow or if general conditions are unfavor- 
able to other sods, one should apply a thousand pounds 
per acre. If the land is decidedly acid, and lime not 
excessively high in price, he will do well to use one 
ton of lime per acre. I mean one ton of lump lime or 
its equivalent in slaked lime or pulverized limestone. 

22 



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Small Fruits for the Farm Home 

23 




Crimson Clover Adds Fertility to the Soil 




Rape Is a Succulent Forage 

24 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 



WHAT FORM? 

Many farmers are asking what form of lime they 
should use. The correct answer depends upon the cost 
of the material. Pulverized lime, which is limestone 
burned into lime, and then made mechanically fine in 
order, that it may be distributed with ease, contains 
tlie greatest possible amount of material for correcting 
soil acidity. When lime has been slaked with water, 
its weight has been increased, while its ability to correct 
acidity has not been increased. One ton of lump lime 
will correct about as mucli acidity, roughly speaking, 
as two tons of finely pulverized limestone. If the 
limestone could be made as fine as flour, so that every 
particle were available in the soil, two tons of the lime- 
stone would correct somewhat more acidity than one 
ton of lime, but, as we find the pulverized limestone oa 
the market, it is safe to say that it is not fine enough 
to permit two tons to be as effective as one ton of the 
pulverized lime. The so-called "new process" lime on 
the market is a lime which has been slaked by steam, 
and therefore has had its weight increased without any 
addition of ability to correct acidity. One ton of this 
*'new-process" lime cannot correct as much soil acidity 
as one ton of pulverized lime. On the other hand, the 
ease of application is a great consideration. "New-pro- 
cess" lime is easy to handle, and on that account rtiay 
be worth as much to the farmer as the pulverized lime 
which is unslaked and must be drilled into the ground 
before it slakes, unless one is willing to be troubled by 
burst packages. 

Pulverized limestone can be handled with compara- 

25 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 

tive ease; but the buyer must remember that he is 
paying for the transportation of a large amount of 
"U'aste material in the pulverized limestone, a^: nearly 
one-half of it is worthless so far as correction of acidity 
is concerned. It is a mere matter of arithmetic to de- 
termine how much soil acidity can be corrected with 
the least amount of money, the first cost of material 
and the transportation and the ease of application be- 
ing considered. 

HOW SHOULD LIME BE APPLIED? 

AVhen the general need of lime is more fully ap- 
preciated, there will be a greater demand for lime 
spreaders. Several firms are making spreaders that 
handle lime in small quantities per acre. Where lime 
is inexpensive and the farmer can afford to apply forty 
or fifty bushels per acre, he will find that the manure 
spreader will do fairly even work ; but when lime is 
costly and only one thousand pounds per acre should 
be applied, the manure spreader is not satisfactory. 
The Ohio Experiment Station had a lime spreader 
made at a local blacksmith shop at a total cost of 
seventeen dollars. A A^-shaped box was used with an 
:axle passing through the box and furnishing a fairly 
good force feed. Old mower wheels were used for this 
spreader, and it gave good satisfaction. Some grain 
drills with fertilizer attachments are capable of apply- 
ing five hundred to one thousand pounds of lime 
per acre, but I think most men fail to get such 
results from their drills, and the thing to do is to 
purchase lime spreaders that will apply any amount 
from a few hundred pounds to a ton or two per acre, 

26 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 

The easiest way to make lime applications is none 
too good. 

DO NOT PLOW DOWN 

I^ime should not be plowed down. The old way- 
was to apply one to two hundred bushels of lime per 
acre on the sod and to let it lie for months and then 
plow it down. In the case of such heavy applications, 
the more waste the better for the land ; but when lime 
costs several dollars a ton the right way is to get the 
greatest possible effectiveness out of it, and that means 
working the lime into the surface of the soil after the 
land has been broken for the crop. The tendency of 
lime always is downward. Do not plow lime down, 
but bring it into contact with the free acid in the top 
soil. Let it become mixed with the top soil and make 
it sweet. 

HOW TO VIEW LIMING 

We often are asked whether lime will increase 
the yield of corn and wheat and other crops. If land 
is sour, containing harmful acid, the sweetening of 
that land with lime will result in increased yield of 
almost any staple product, but we do not urge any 
one to apply lime for the sake of increase in yield of 
corn, wheat and similar crops. We wish the farmer 
to take a different view-point. If his land is in an 
unhealthy state and lime will put it into a condition 
friendly to plants, the thing to do is to correct that 
soil with' lime and, when that has been done, he 
should have in mind first the production of a heavy 
clover sod. The increase in yield of wheat or corn is 
incidental. The Vital thing is to make the land 

27 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 

friendly to all plants, especially clover, because in 
most farm crop rotations clover is fundamental, and 
continued productiveness of the soil depends largely 
upon it. As clover usually is seeded either with oats 
or wheat, the lime may be drilled into the ground 
while preparing the seed bed for oats or for wheat. 
If the farmer prefers, he can drill the lime into the 
ground when preparing land for corn, although I am 
sure that a larger amount per acre will be necessary 
than when applying the lime immediately previous 
to the seeding to clover. 

I have tried to impress these facts : The tendency 
of soils is toward lime deficiency. Limestone soils 
themselves gradually lose some available lime. Maxi- 
mum crops can be obtained only from neutral or alka- 
line soils. As lands grow old, we shall be compelled to 
apply more and more lime to keep the soil sweet, and 
we can get that lime out of stone lime, pulverized or 
slaked lime or finely pulverized limestone. The day 
will come when we will realize that the Creator 
placed beds of limestone in our lands for the benefit 
of humanity, just as He placed the coal beds. Just 
as the coal is an accumulation of material for the 
benefit of the human race, so is our limestone an 
accumulation of material to satisfy deficiencies that 
will continue more and more to occur in our tillable 
soils as long as the earth stands. If there were no 
supplies of lime, we probably could look forward only 
to the day when our soils would be rank with poison- 
ous acids and wholly unfriendly to plant life. 



28 



CHAPTER ly 

THE THIRD ESSENTIAL 
ORGANIC MATTER 

When land has been robbed through the greed of 
its owner and has been abandoned, nature imme- 
diately begins the work of restoration. All land 
which once was in productive condition contains 
large stores of inert plant food, and an unproducti\e 
condition has resulted in part from the removal of all 
vegetable matter. Nature's first effort is to produce 
some vegetation through whose growth and decay 
comes about some increase in the availability of the 
natural stores of fertility. A growth of weeds and 
briars and bushes is made the first season, and when 
the leaves and stalks and roots decay there is ability 
in the soil to produce a larger growth of vegetation 
the next year. Handicapped as is the abandoned soil 
by the greed of man, and helpless with respect to 
selection of the best possible plants to renew the sup- 
ply of humus, the soil makes use of whatever variety 
of plants is possible to it and in time there is a return 
to better productive condition. Organic matter is the 
life of the soil, and the means of supplying it is the 
vital consideration after we have been assured of 
drainage and freedom from acidity. 

STABLE MANUKE 

There is a limit to the amount of stable manure 
that may be made, because there is a limit to the 

29 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 

amount of soil products that should be furnished the 
human race in the form of animal products. The man 
who advises that all of the soil products of a farm 
be fed to animals, and that other feeding stuffs 
be purchased to make good any loss of fertility 
resulting from feeding and sale of live-stock, has no 
solution of the soil-fertility problem for the world. 
The human race must be supplied with other food 
than meat and milk, and the scheme of creation must 
have provided for the maintenance of soil fertility, 
while land furnished bread and vegetables and fruit 
to those wlx> would not be farmers. 

If there were an abundance of manure on all farms, 
the factor of organic matter in soils would need little 
consideration. When the manure rotted in the soil, it 
would improve the texture of the ground, assist in 
liolding moisture and add plant food. But there is 
not enough manure to keep all the land supplied with 
organic matter, and dependence must be placed upon 
plants. We may get the material from their roots 
and stubble, as is usual in the case of the clovers and 
grasses, or from the entire plant. When the supply of 
manure is light, it pays best to use it to grow a heavy 
sod for plowing down. It can be made to supply more 
organic matter indirectly than it does directly. The 
owner of thin land who has a limited supply of manure 
should accept the thought that in his case the chief 
function of manure is to produce heavy sods which 
will supply vegetable matter. In his case enough of 
the farm supply of manure will be kept in the surface 
soil to furnish the most favorable conditions to young 
clover and grass plants when starting life. He will 

30 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 

plow manure deeply only after he has used a sufficient 
part of the farm supply as a top-dressing to insure 
sods. 

CLOVERS 

Immense importance attaches to the care and use 
of the manure now made. Present wastes are enor- 
mous. The supphes, however, should be supplemented 
by the legumes. There would hardly be a limit to the 
supply of organic matter from the clovers if we would 
nieet the conditions for successful clover growing. On 
two-thirds of the land from the Mississippi river to 
the seaboard there has been a tendency to accept 
the idea that the clovers cannot be made to grow 
successfully. 

In the northern states the varieties in common use 
are medium red, mammoth and alsike. They have 
been failing more and more, and land has grown 
deficient in organic matter and less productive. There 
are limited areas in which disease has caused failure, 
but in the vast majority of cases the inabihty to grow" 
clover can be overcome. Drained land, made sweet 
with lime and given proper applications of fertilizer,, 
can be brought to the production of heavy clover sods. 
Some who read this will doubt the statement, but 
within the last few years the certainty of it has been 
established by thousands of men on all kinds of soils. 
We can get the clover, and it does not pay to doubt 
the fact. 

CHOICE OF VARIETY 

Medium red clover is a great soil builder when 
given a chance. It produces two crops and we can 

31 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 

harvest one of the two without any great injury to 
the soil. This may be the first crop, the second crop 
being plowed down. Or, we may clip the first crop, 
making a rich mulch, and then take off a crop of 
seed. When we take both crops we rob the land 
of organic matter unless manure comes back to it. 
Medium red clover also makes a big growth of roots. 
When a soil is not water-logged, and has been sweet- 
ened with lime, medium red has no superior in ability 
to build up fertility. 

Where drainage is less good, and where there is 
some deficiency in lime, the alsike is surer. It does 
not equal medium red or the mammoth as a soil 
builder, nor does it make as much hay per acre, 
but it is excellent, nevertheless, and a good plan 
is to mix alsike and red when seeding doubtful 
ground. The alsike seed is small, and a mixture 
of one bushel of alsike to five bushels of medium 
Ted is good. 

The mammoth makes only one crop. It makes 
coarse hay, and falls badly when seeded alone. It is 
a good mixture with timothy, ripening later than the 
medium red. The latter is the better for fertility if 
its second crop is left on the ground. 

It would be great if crimson clover could be 
grown throughout the northern states. It is a winter 
annual, like wheat. Crimson clover can not be sown 
with success in the spring. The outcome would be 
much as in the case of winter wheat sown in the 
spring. If it were a hardy plant, our northern states 
would have the best possible winter cover crop. If 
people inoculated the soil for it, as they do for alfalfa, 

32 




The Large Roots of an Alsike aover Plant 



33 




Fruit and Truck Farm Kept in a High State of Fertility 




A Market-Garden on Soil That Has Seen Made Rich 
34 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 

the day would come when much larger areas in the 
North would ffrow this clover with success. 



GRASS SODS 



The grasses can furnish a large amount of organic 
matter to land, and would be soil builders if used 
aright. The chief trouble is that we do not fertilize 
grass sods so that they will be heavy, and do not 
plow them down when heavy. We use them to skin 
the soil rather than to build it up. A heavy grass 
sod, turned under with some aftermath, adds largely 
to the soil's supply of vegetable matter, and therefore 
to productive power. We are learning that it pays 
better to fertilize a sod than to fertilize the crop fol- 
lowing the grass. The investment makes double 
returns. 

OTHER SOURCES OF ORGANIC INIATTER 

When land is not growing a crop to be harvested, 
it should be proSucing organic matter for itself. 
Soils produce plants on account of their hunger for 
vegetable matter that may rot and thereby increase 
their productivity. A part of that which the soil 
produces belongs to it by natural right, and when any 
man's scheme of farming provides for the removal 
of a greater part of the soil's production than riglit- 
fuUy belongs to him, the land is on the road toward 
infertility. JNIany of our best farmers find it possil)le 
to give to the land its share of that which is pro- 
duced by making free use of catch crops. They may 
be grown after the remo\'al of the reguhu- crop in 
the rotation, or they may be grown with some of 

35 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 

these crops. Frequently they may take the place of 
some crop whose failure was inevitable on account of 
conditions that could not be controlled. In warm 
latitudes, the southern field pea and crimson clover 
are peculiarly valuable because they add large stores 
of nitrogen while supplying organic matter. Farther 
north, the Soy bean takes the place occupied by the 
southern field pea in the south. It will thrive in 
iiny good corn soil. Winter vetch is another valuable 
legume. Rye is the surest winter cover crop for 
northern latitudes and has considerable value. Any 
plant that adds organic matter to the ground adds 
productive power, provided there is lime in the soil 
to unite with the acids produced by the rotting 
plant- 



36 



CHAPTER V 

THE FOURTH ESSENTIAL 
AVAILABLE PLANT FOOD 

When we consider our soil-fertility problem simply 
and broadly, there are those who accept the statement 
that drainage, soil sweetness and organic matter are 
essentials, but they believe that these three are the 
only essentials; and that I am all wrong in naming a 
fourth — commercial fertilizers. Again there are those 
who accept the fourth, but don't see anything simple 
about proper selection of commercial fertilizers, while 
they do know how to drain, to sweeten a soil, and to 
work out the best way of getting plenty of organic 
matter. 

THE NEED 

The first class may have a soil well filled with 
available fertility. There is such land. The day will 
come when its supply of mineral plant food will run 
too low for maximum production. Then will be the 
time to replenish it. Nature stored up great deposits 
for this purpose. But many farmers on naturally rich 
land, or land receiving stable manure, are failing to get 
the best yields of grain, potatoes, etc., because they 
do not supply some phosphoric acid and potash — 
especially the former. The clover and the manure 
supply nitrogen which makes a rank growth of stalk 
and leaf, but the yield of grain is not in proportion, 
because phosplioric acid is lacking. 

37 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 

WHAT TO APPLY 

It is easier to find out that certain quantities of 
certain elements will bring some net profit than it is 
to learn what application will bring the most net 
profit. It is the best net profit that one wants, and I 
reckon that few ever do hit the mark exactly. But 
there are some broad lines between which we can 
work. We can make far more intelligent guesses than 
some of us are doing, and then we can learn by each 
year's experience. 

UNPRODUCTIVE LAND 

Most land has a lot of fertility in it that is not 
available. It is like ore before it is mined. It consti- 
tutes the "natural strength" of the soil. This ma- 
terial becomes unlocked gradually by means of good 
tillage and the action of rotting vegetable matter. 
AVhen we undertake to improve a poor field, it usu- 
ally pays to supply nitrogen, phosphoric acid and 
potash — a high-grade complete fertilizer — until we 
can get a supply of organic matter at work for us in 
the soil. The complete fertilizer helps to make a 
heavy sod for plowing down, or a growth to be 
plowed under. The soil is nearly helpless until the 
hunuis-making material is supplied. 

When land has been hard-run, and is unproduc- 
tive, it needs the three elements in a complete fer- 
tilizer, but such land, when sweetened with lime, 
should grow clover if the phosphoric acid and potash 
are supplied liberally. The clover, with some stable 
manure on the farm, should supply the greater part 

38 




$20,000 Improvements Paid for from Proceeds of Farm— Fertility Did It 




A Rich Soil Grows Big Wheal 




Soy Beans Make Rich Soil 




Extensive Lettuce Growing 
40 




Limestone on Sweet Clover at Ohio Experiment Station. The Large Growth is Limed 





Prolific Oats 



41 



Champion Com 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 

of the nitrogen for all staple crops. We can tell 
whether it is doing so by the appearance of the 
growing plants. This is simple enough. If corn 
makes a heavy stalk, with broad, dark leaves; it 
timothy grows rank; if potato vines are heavy — quit 
buying nitrogen. If plants are pale in color and 
small, buy nitrogen until the clovers and manure do 
supply the need. If it will not pay to feed plants 
according to their need, it will not pay to farm the 
land. 

THE MINERAL ELEMENTS 

We should learn from others. It is the experi- 
ence of nearly all experiment stations and land- 
owners, from the Mississippi river to the ^Vtlantic 
seaboard, that phosphoric acid is the limiting element 
in our soils. That is to say, if a soil lacks anything 
phosphoric acid will be found to be deficient. Other 
plant food may be lacking also — probably is, if the 
soil is poor — but most of all is the need of phos- 
phorus. Hence we learn to supply it, and our usual 
failure is to supply it Hberally. The chances always 
are that we should use steamed bone, basic slag or 
acid phosphate, or a mixed fertilizer running high in 
phosphorus. 

THE COMPLETE FERTILIZER 

There are immense beds of material containing 
phosphorus, and there is a nearly universal hunger for 
that element in our soils. When we supply enough, 
together with potash where needed, to produce good 
clover, we have land brought up to a good state of 

43 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 

productiveness. We get crops yielding profit. After 
the marked deficiency has been met in this way, fur- 
ther increase in yield of cereals, grasses and most 
vegetables comes from the use of a fertilizer supply- 
ing all three elements. First use freely the carriers of 
phosphorus on land that will grow clover well, and 
let the organic matter help to free plant food. Then, 
usually on such land a complete fertilizer helps to 
still greater profit. 

Thin land is helpless. We supply everything to 
get clover started. Later, with the clover, we depend 
heavily upon phosphorus for profitable, productive 
condition. Then, with the chief hunger of the soil 
met, when we go after increased yields, we find the 
complete fertilizer pays. In some soils the need of 
potash is as marked as that of phosphorus. 

RATIONAL FARMING 

Our country is comparatively new. It was cleared 
and cropped. The need of drainage in many sections 
has increased as the subsoil became packed and the 
top soil lost its humus. The lime has washed out or 
been used up. The organic matter has been con- 
sumed, and the stores of soil strength have been 
locked up. The steps toward improvement are not 
difficult to understand. We have learned much 
about methods of draining. We have learned the 
imperative need of lime, and what and how to apply 
to make a soil sweet and friendly to clover. We 
have learned to plan so that the soil's natural share 
of vegetable matter may go back to it in sods, catch 
crops and manure. We have learned something 

44 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY 

about supplying a soil's hunger for mineral ele- 
ments. 

We have an immense deal yet to learn about 
methods, so as to meet the land's need, and at the 
same time get the most net profit, but we know the 
general direction of the road we must travel. The 
amount of stuff we should feed on the farm, the rota- 
tion and kind of crops, the amount of tillage, the 
place to use fertilizers and the amount — an endless 
mass of things puzzle every thinking farmer, and will 
continue to puzzle us because curcumstances vary; 
but we do find the fundamental principles simple, 
and know what we are trying to do. The farming of 
the next fifty years will be far more intelhgent than 
tliat of the past, and land will grow better and not 
worse. 



45 



"Common Sense Treat- 
ment of Farm Animals" 

By DR. C. D. SMEAD 

'pHIS book, written by Dr. Smead, a noted 
authority in his hne, tells in every-day 
style how to treat common diseases of 
cattle, horses, sheep and swine. Tells how 
to keep them healthy and thriving and 
what to do in case of emergency — chok- 
ing, colic, bloating, wounds, etc. The illus- 
trations make the book worth many times 
more than is asked for it, showing as they 
do the methods of applying different treat- 
ments. Animals on every farm get sick 
at times. The study of Dr. Smead's di- 
rections and quick action will save nine 
cases out of ten. You can't follow direc- 
tions without the book. Price 50 cents. 



Copyrighted and Published by 

The National Stockman and Farmer 
Publishing Company. 



JUL 5 1913 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



002 755 490 8 



